Serono cancer drug fails in Phase II

Switzerland's Serono has announced that two Phase II trials of adecatumumab (MT201) for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer and prostate cancer failed to meet their primary endpoints. However, the drug did meet a secondary endpoint of delayed time-to-progression of the disease. Researchers are blaming a high variation of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) for the outcome of the trial. Serono, which is developing the drug with Micromet, has recently agreed to a buyout bid from Merck KGaA.

"While the primary end point was not reached likely due to high inter-patient variability of PSA, the analysis of the minimal residual disease subset showed an encouraging effect on PSA progression, although patient numbers are limited. The fact that these effects were seen in patients with high EpCAM expression further validates the concept of adecatumumab being a true targeted therapy," commented Professor Axel Heidenreich, head of the Urological Clinic at the University Hospital in Cologne, Germany, in a press release.

- see the release on the data